THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES J^onore tie ISal^ac J^onor^ tie Balzac MILITARY AND POLITICAL LIFE VOLUME 1 LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND COMPLETE COPIES NO. 713 ''•^yi.yiu.^ /■>/ Jy '/ X t U^ iPP l^fi Ki| mf ■'^■r^SS&KiW AT LA VI VET I ERE * * * witli eyes filled zcifh hate, for she already felt a terrible craving for revenge springing up in her heart. Seeing death behind her, her poicerlessiiess ehoked her. Her brain whirled as if she were going mad ; thereupon, instead of killing herself, she seized the sivord, brandished it over the marquis' head, and buried it in his body up to the hilt. THE NOVELS OF HONORE DE BALZAC NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME COMPLETELY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH THE CHOUANS BY G. BURNHAM IVES WITH FIVE ETCHINGS BY RICARDO DE LOS RIOS, AFTER PAINTINGS BY EDOUARD TOUDOUZE IN ONE VOLUME PRINTED ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS BY GEORGE BARRIE & SON, PHILADELPHIA COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY GEORGE BARRIE A SON a o o ^ THE CHOUANS OR BRETAGNE IN 1799 189931 TO MONSIEUR THEODORE DABLIN MERCHANT. To the first friend, the first work DE BALZAC I THE AMBUSCADE Early in the year VIII., in the first days of Vende- miaire, or, to conform to the calendar now in use, toward the close of the month of September, 1799, a hundred or more peasants and a considerable number of bourgeois, who had left Fougeres in the morning on their way to Mayenne, were climbing the mountain of La Pelerine, which lies halfway between Fougeres and Ernee, a small town where travellers generally stop to rest. This detachment, divided into several groups of unequal size, pre- sented such an extraordinary collection of costumes and an assemblage of individuals belonging to so many different localities and professions, that it will be well- to describe the characteristic differences be- tween them, in order to give this narrative the vivid coloring on which so high a price is set to-day, although, according to some critics, it interferes with the delineation of sentiment. A part of the peasants — and it was the larger (5) 6 THE CHOUANS part — were barefooted and had no other clothing than large goatskins which covered them from the neck to the knees and trousers of very coarse white cotton, whose badly-trimmed yarn was typical of the indifference of the province in industrial matters. The flattened locks of their long hair joined so naturally the hair of the goatskin and concealed so entirely their downcast faces, that one could easily take the skin for their own, and confound the poor devils, at first sight, with the animals whose spojls serve(^ thenp as clothing. But soon you saw their eyes gleaming through the hair like drops of dew through dense foliage ; and their glances, while denoting human intelligence, certain- ly spoke more of terror than of pleasure. Their heads were surmounted by dirty red woollen caps, like the Phrygian cap adopted by the Republic as the emblem of liberty. Every man carried on his shoulder a thick club of gnarled oak, at the end of which hung a long cotton wallet with but little in- side. Others wore, over their caps, broad-brimmed hats of coarse felt, adorned with a sort of fringe in wool of various colors, which surrounded the crown. These latter were dressed throughout in the same coarse cotton of which the trousers and wallets of the first were made, and there was almost nothing about their costume that belonged to the new civil- ization. Their long hair fell over the collar of a round jacket which did not reach to the hips, with small square pockets at the sides, — a garment pe- culiar to the peasants of the West. Beneath this THE CHOUANS 7 open jacket could be seen a waistcoat of the same cotton, with large buttons. Some of them marched in wooden shoes, while others, for economy's sake, carried their leather shoes in their hands. This costume, less original than the preceding, soiled by long usage and blackened by sweat and dust, had the historic merit of serving as a transition to the almost sumptuous garb of some few men who were scattered here and there among the motley as- semblage like bright flowers. In very truth their blue linen trousers and their red or yellow waist- coats, like square cuirasses, embellished with two parallel rows of brass buttons, stood out as sharply against the white clothes and the goatskins of their comrades as bluebells and poppies in a field of grain. Some were shod with the clogs that the peasants of Bretagne know how to make for themselves ; but almost all had heavy hob-nailed leather shoes and coats of very coarse cloth, cut like the old French coats, whose shape is still religiously adhered to by our peasants. Their shirt collars were fastened by silver buttons, representing hearts or anchors. Lastly, their wallets seemed to be better supplied than those of their companions, and several of them added to their travelling equipment, a flask, full of eau-de-vie doubtless, which hung by a strap from the neck. Some townspeople appeared among these half- savage men, as if to mark the last limit of the civil- ization of those regions. With round hats, flat hats or caps on their heads, shod with half-boots or with 8 THE CHOUANS shoes kept in place by gaiters, they, like the peasants, presented a remarkable variety in their costumes. Some half a score of them wore the republican jacket known under the name of carma- gnole. Others, well-to-do mechanics doubtless, were clad from head to foot in cloth of the same color. Those who were most elegantly dressed were distinguished by frockcoats and redingotes of blue or green cloth, more or less threadbare. These last, veritable personages, wore boots of various shapes and toyed with heavy canes like men who bear up stoutly against ill fortune. Some carefully powdered heads, some neatly braided queues denoted that sort of care of the person which is inspired by a beginning of education or of fortune. As you looked over these men, who seemed to have been picked up at random and to be amazed to find themselves in company, you would have said that it was the population of some village driven from their homes by a conflagration. But the period and the locality imparted an entirely different in- terest to this mass of men. An observer, familiar with the secret of the civil discords by which France was agitated at that time, would have found it a simple matter to identify the small number of citi- zens upon whose fidelity the Republic could rely in that troop, composed almost wholly of men who had borne arms against it four years before. One last striking feature left no manner of doubt as to the difference of opinion which divided the assemblage. THE CHOUANS 9 Only the republicans marched with something like cheerfulness, whereas the other members of the party, despite the noticeable differences in costume, exhibited upon their faces and in their bearing, the unvarying expression that misfortune causes. Bourgeois and peasants, all bore the imprint of pro- found melancholy ; there was something savage in their silence and they seemed to be bending beneath the burden of one universal thought, terrible beyond question, but carefully concealed, for their faces were impenetrable ; but the unusual moderation of their steps might denote some secret design. From time to time, some of them, made conspicuous by rosaries hanging from their necks, despite the risk they incurred in retaining that emblem of a religion that was suppressed rather than destroyed, shook their long hair and raised their heads suspiciously. At such times they stealthily scrutinized the woods, the paths and the cliffs by which the road was shut in, but they did it after the manner of a dog with his nose in the air, trying to scent game at a dis- tance ; then, hearing only the monotonous sound of their silent companions' footsteps, they would lower their heads again and resume their despairing ex- pression, like criminals on the way to the galleys, there to live and die. The march of this column toward Mayenne, the heterogeneous elements of which it was composed and the diverse sentiments that it expressed were readily explained by the presence of another troop forming the head of the detachment. The troop 10 THE CHOUANS consisted of about one hundred and fifty soldiers, with arms and baggage, under the command of a chef de demi-brigade. It may be well to inform those who did not witness the drama of the Revolution that that title replaced the title of colonel, tabooed by the patriots as being too aristocratic. These soldiers belonged to a demi-brigade of infantry then stationed at Mayenne. In those days of internal dissensions, the natives of the West called all the republican soldiers Blms. This appellation was due to the first blue and red uniforms, the memory of which is still sufficiently green to make a description of them unnecessary. The detachment of Blues, then, was serving as escort to this assemblage of men, almost all of whom were ill-pleased to be taken to Mayenne, where military discipline was expected to give them the same enthusiasm, the same uni- form, and the uniformity of gait in which they were then so entirely deficient. This column was the contingent obtained with much difficulty from the district of Fougeres and due from that district as its share of the levy of troops ordered by the Executive Directory of the French Republic by a law of the loth Messidor preceding. The government had asked for a hundred millions and a hundred thousand men, in order to send prompt assistance to its armies, then being worsted by the Austrians in Italy, by the Prussians in Germany, and threatened in Switzerland by the Russians, in whom Suvaroff inspired hopes of the conquest of France. The departments of the West, known by the names THE CHOUANS II of Vendee, Bretagne and a portion of Basse Nor- mandie, which had been pacified three years before by the labors of General Hoche, after a war lasting four years, seemed to have seized that moment to recommence the struggle. In the face of all these aggressions the Republic exhibited its former energy. In the first place, it provided for the defence of the departments attacked, by entrusting it to the pa- triotic portion of the inhabitants by one of the articles of the law of Messidor. In short, the gov- ernment, having neither troops nor money to spare for its internal troubles, evaded the difficulty by a legislative gasconade : being unable to send any- thing to the rebellious departments, it gave them its confidence. Perhaps, too, it was hoped that this measure, by arming the citizens against one another, would destroy the active principle of the insurrection. The article in question, which was the cause of disastrous reprisals, was thus conceived : Free com- panies shall be organised in the departments of the West. This impolitic arrangement caused the West to assume such a hostile attitude that the Directory despaired of crushing it at the first blow. And so, a few days later, it asked the Assemblies for spe- cial measures relative to the small contingents of recruits due under the article authorizing the free companies. Therefore a new law, promulgated a few days before the beginning of this narrative, and passed on the third supplementary day of the year VII., ordered that those small levies should be 12 THE CHOUANS organized into legions. Tlie legions were to bear the name of the departments of Sarthe, Orne, Mayenne, Ille-et-Vilaine, Morbihan, Loire Inferieure, and Maine-et-Loire. These legions, said the law, heitig organised especially to fight the Chouans, cannot he scfit to the frontiers on afiy pretext. These tedious, but little known details explain at once the weak- ness of the Directory's position at that time, and the march of the motley troop of men under escort of the Blues. Perhaps it will not be superfluous to add that these grand and patriotic expressions of the directorial will were never executed any farther than to be inserted in the Bulletin des Lois. Being no longer sustained by high moral ideas, by patriot- ism or by terror, which so recently caused them to be executed instanter, the decrees of the Republic created millions and soldiers, none of which found their way into the Treasury or the army. The mainspring of the Revolution was worn out in un- skilful hands, and the laws received in their applica- tion the impress of circumstances, instead of domi- nating them. The departments of Mayenne and Ille-et-Vilaine were at this time under the command of an old officer who, forming his judgment of the proper measures to take from what he knew of the locality, deter- mined to extort from Bretagne the contingents due under the law, especially that of Foug^res, one of the most redoubtable hotbeds of chouannerie. He hoped in this way to weaken the forces of those threatening districts. The loyal soldier took ad- THE CHOUANS 1 3 vantage of the illusory provisions of the law to de- clare that he would equip and arm the new recruits immediately, and that he held at their disposal one month's pay of the amount promised by the govern- ment to these exceptional troops. Although Bre- tagne at that time refused to perform any kind of military service, the operation succeeded at first on the faith of these promises, and the response was so prompt that the officer took alarm. But he was one of the old watch-dogs that are not easily taken by surprise. As soon as he saw that part of the contingents were hurrying to the appointed rendez- vous, he suspected that there was some secret mo- tive for their prompt coming together, and perhaps he guessed rightly that they wanted to procure arms. Thereupon, without waiting for the laggards, he took measures to try and ensure his retreat to Alengon, in order to be nearer to the loyal pro- vinces, although the growing insurrection in that region made the success of his plan very problemat- ical. This officer, who, in accordance with his instruc- tions, maintained the most absolute secrecy as to the ill fortune of our armies and the by no means consoling news from La Vendee, had attempted, on the morning when this tale opens, to reach Mayenne by a forced march, where he proposed to carry out the law according to his own good pleas- ure, by filling the ranks of his demi-brigade with his Breton conscripts. The word conscript, which has since become so famous, had recently for the first 14 THE CHOUANS time taken the place, in the laws, of the term reqiii- sitionnaire, originally applied to the republican re- cruits. Before leaving Foug^res, the commandant had ordered his troops to supply themselves secretly with cartridges and sufficient rations of bread for the whole party, in order not to attract the attention of the conscripts to the length of the march ; and he did not propose to halt for rest at Ernee, where the men of the contingent, having recovered from their surprise, might put themselves in communica- tion with the Chouans, who were doubtless scattered among the neighboring fields. The gloomy silence that reigned among the recruits, who were surprised by the old republican's manoeuvre, and their slow progress over the mountain, aroused to the highest pitch the suspicion of the demi-brigade commander, one Hulot ; the most salient features of the pre- ceding description possessed a keen interest for him ; and so he marched silently on, surrounded by five young officers, all of whom respected their com- manding officer's preoccupation. But when Hulot reached the crest of La Pelerine, he suddenly turned his head, as if by instinct, to inspect the disturbed countenances of the recruits, and was not slow to break the silence. In fact, the constantly slacken- ing gait of the recruits had already placed a gap of some two hundred yards between them and their escort. Hulot made a grimace which was peculiar to him. " What the devil's the matter with all those fel- lows down there 1 " he cried in a ringing voice. THE CHOUANS 1 5 *' I should think our conscripts were closing the compasses instead of opening them ! " ' At these words the officers who accompanied him turned about spontaneously, as if aroused from a sleep by a sudden crash. The sergeants and cor- porals imitated them and the company came to a stop without waiting for the long-wished-for word : "Halt!" Although the officers naturally looked back at the detachment which was crawling up La Pelerine like a long turtle, those young men, whom the defence of their country had taken, like so many others, from their professional studies, and in whom war had not yet destroyed the artistic sense, were so struck by the spectacle spread out before them, that they did not reply to a remark whose impor- tance was not known to them. Although they came from Fougeres, where the same picture that they now looked upon was before their eyes, with the variations due to the change of perspective, they could not refrain from casting one last admiring glance upon it, like those dilettanti who take the greater enjoyment in a piece of music because of their acquaintance with its details. From the summit of La Pelerine, the broad valley of Couesnon lies before the eyes of the travellers, one of its culminating points on the horizon being occupied by the town of Fougeres. Its chateau, ^ In familiar language, fermer le compas — to close the com- passes— means to halt, and onvrir le compas — to open the com- passes— means to go forward. l6 THE CHOUANS from the summit of the cliff on which it is built, overlooks three or four important roads, a location which made it formerly one of the keys of Bretagne. From where they stood, the officers could see the w hole extent of that great basin, as remarkable for the prodigious fertility of its soil as for its varied aspects. On all sides mountains of schist arise in the shape of an amphitheatre, their reddish sides are hidden beneath forests of oak, and verdant glades lie concealed on their slopes. The cliffs form a vast enclosure, circular in appearance, in whose centre lies a vast, smooth plain laid out like an English garden. The multitude of quickset hedges enclosing numerous small properties of irregular shape, all thickly planted with trees, give to that carpet of verdure an aspect rare among French landscapes, and it contains secrets pregnant with charms in its multiplied contrasts, whose effects are broad enough to reach the most indifferent mind. At that mo- ment, the landscape was enlivened by the fleeting splendor with which nature sometimes delights to enhance the beauty of her imperishable creations. While the detachment was crossing the valley, the rising sun had slowly scattered the fleecy white mists that hover over the fields on a September morning. Just as the soldiers turned their heads, an invisible hand seemed to lift from the landscape the last of the veils in which it had been enveloped, delicate clouds, like the transparent gauze shroud spread over precious stones, through which they arouse our curiosity. In all the vast expanse within THE CHOUANS 17 the officers' range of vision, there was not the slightest semblance of a cloud in the sky, to con- vince one, by the contrast of its silvery whiteness, that that immense blue vault was really the firma- ment. It seemed rather a silken canopy upheld by the irregular mountain peaks, and suspended in the air to shelter that magnificent aggregation of fields, plains, streams and woods. The officers did not weary of gazing upon that landscape so replete with rustic beauties. Some hesitated long before resting their eyes upon the marvellous multiplicity of bosky groves, which the harsh tints of some few yellowing clumps enriched with the hue of bronze, and which were brought into still bolder relief by the emerald-green of the ir- regular meadows. Others revelled in the contrasts presented by the ruddy fields where the buckwheat stood in conical sheaves like the stacks of arms that soldiers make in camp, separated by other fields gilded by the prostrate rows of mown rye. Here and there a sombre slated roof, whence a column of white smoke issued, and the well-defined silvery lines of the tortuous branches of the Couesnon at- tracted the eye by one of those optical illusions which cause the mind to waver and to dream, one knows not why. The balmy freshness of the autumn breeze, the pungent odor of the forest, rose like a cloud of incense and intoxicated those who gazed admiringly upon that beautiful country, who contemplated with delight its unfamiliar flowers, its vigorous vegetation, its verdure which rivals that l8 THE CHOUANS of England, its neighbor, whose name is common to the two countries. The dramatic scene was enliv- ened by some few domestic animals. The birds sang, causing the valley to give forth a sweet, low melody that trembled in the air. If the thoughtful imagination will notice carefully the accidents of light and shade, the misty summits of the mountains, the fanciful shapes that have their birth in spots devoid of trees, or where the waters wind away in graceful, sinuous course ; if the memory colors, so to speak, this sketch that is as fleeting as the moment when it is taken, those persons to whom such pictures are not without attraction will have an im- perfect image of the magic spectacle by which the still impressionable minds of the young officers were in some sort taken by surprise. Reflecting that those poor fellows were regretfully leaving behind their native province and their cherished customs to go to meet their death, per- haps, in foreign lands, they involuntarily forgave them a delay which they understood. With the characteristic generosity of soldiers, they concealed their condescension behind a feigned desire to ex- amine the strategic possibilities of that lovely region. But Hulot, whom we must call the commandant to avoid giving him the awkward title oi chef de demi- brigade was one of those warriors who, when danger is imminent, do not allow themselves to be distracted by the beauties of the landscape, even though it might be the terrestrial paradise. He shook his head therefore and contracted two thick, black eye- THE CHOUANS I9 brows which gave a stern expression to his counte- nance. " Why the devil don't they come on ? " he asked for the second time, in a voice made hoarse by the fatigues of war. " Is there any blessed Virgin in the village that they're shaking hands with ? " " Do you ask why ? " replied a voice. When he heard those words, which sounded like the notes of the horn with which the peasants of those valleys call their flocks together, the com- mandant turned sharply around, as if he had felt the prick of a sword, and saw, within two yards, a more extraordinary individual than any of those he was taking to Mayenne to serve the Republic. He was a thickset, broad-shouldered man, with a head almost as large as a bull's, which it resembled in more ways than one. Thick nostrils made his nose appear even shorter than it was. His heavy lips, parted by teeth as white as snow, his great, round black eyes with menacing lashes, his hanging ears and his red hair were less appropriate to one of our fair Caucasian race than to the genus Herbivora. The entire absence of the other characteristics of sentient man rendered that bare head even more remarkable. The face, bronzed by the sun, and with angular outlines vaguely suggestive of the granite that is the main element of the soil of those regions, was the only visible portion of the strange creature's body. From the neck down, he was en- veloped in a sarrau, a sort of red cotton blouse of even coarser material than that of the trousers of 20 THE CHOUANS the poorest conscripts. This sarrau, in which an antiquary would have recognized the saye — saga — or sayon of the Gauls, came to an end at his middle, where it was attached to two goatskins by pieces of wood, roughly whittled, from some of which the bark had not been removed. The she-goats' skins — to use the local term — in which his legs and thighs were encased, left no semblance of a human form. Enormous clogs concealed his feet. His long greasy hair, not unlike that of his goatskins, fell on each side of his face, separated into two equal parts, like the hair of the statues of the Middle Ages which are still seen in some cathedrals. Instead of the knot- ted clubs which the conscripts carried on their shoulders, he held against his breast, after the manner of a gun, a great whip, whose deftly braided lash seemed to be twice the length of ordinary lashes. The sudden appearance of this strange creature seemed easy to explain. At first glance, some of the officers supposed that the stranger was a recruit or conscript — the words were still used in- terchangeably— who was returning to the column, seeing that it had halted. Nevertheless, the man's appearance strangely disturbed the commandant ; although he did not seem in the least alarmed, his brow became thoughtful, and after eyeing the stranger from head to foot, he repeated mechanic- ally and as if absorbed by gloomy thoughts : " Yes, why don't they come on ? do you know ? " " Because," replied his dark-browed interlocutor THE CHOUANS 21 with an accent that indicated considerable difficulty in speaking the French language, " because there," he said, stretching out his great, rough hand toward Ernee, "there is Maine and there Bretagne ends." With that he stamped heavily on the ground, throwing the heavy handle of his whip at the com- mandant's feet. The impression produced upon the spectators of this scene by the stranger's laconic harangue resembled that which would be produced by a sudden blow upon a tam-tam in the midst of a band. The word harangue is hardly adequate to describe the hatred, the longing for vengeance ex- pressed by a haughty bearing, abrupt speech and features instinct with cool and savage energy. The coarse exterior of the man, who looked as if he had been hewn with an axe, his rough shell, the stupid ignorance written on his features, made him a sort of barbarian demigod. He maintained a prophetic attitude and stood there like the genius of Bre- tagne, rising from a three years' sleep to renew a war in which victory never appeared without double mourning. " There's a pretty head ! " said Hulot to himself. " He looks to me like an ambassador from people who are preparing to parley with musket shots," Muttering thus between his teeth, the command- ant turned his eyes from the man to the landscape, from the landscape to the detachment, from the de- tachment to the steep embankments of the road, shaded at the top by the high broom plant of Bre- tagne ; then he suddenly brought them back to the 22 THE CHOUANS stranger, as if subjecting him to a mute questioning, which he brought to a close by asking him abruptly : " Where do you come from ? " His keen, piercing glance sought to fathom the secrets of that impenetrable face, which, during the interval, had taken on the idiotic, torpid expression of a peasant in repose. " From the country of the Gars," he replied, without apparent embarrassment. " Your name .-* " " Marche-a-Terre." "Why do you bear your Chouan sobriquet, in spite of the law ? ' ' Marche-a-Terre — we will call him by that name as he claimed it — looked at the commandant with an expression of imbecility so unmistakably genuine, that the commandant thought he could not have understood him. " Are you one of the Foug^res contingent 1 " Marche-a-Terre answered this question with an / don't know in a hopeless tone that checked all con- versation. He seated himself calmly by the road- side, took from his blouse a few pieces of a thin black buckwheat cake, a national delicacy, the joys of which none but Bretons can appreciate, and began to munch it with stupid indifference. His appear- ance was so indicative of an entire absence of intel- ligence of any sort, that the officers in turn com- pared him as he sat there to one of the animals browsing on the rich pasturage of the valley, to the savages of America or to a native of the Cape of Good THE CHOUANS 23 Hope. Deceived by his attitude, the commandant himself had ceased to listen to his anxious thoughts, when, as he cast one last glance, by way of precau- tion, at the man whom he suspected to be the herald of approaching bloodshed, he saw that his hair, his blouse, his goatskin trousers were covered with thorns, dried leaves, bits of wood and brambles, as if the Chouan had travelled a long way through the underbrush. He glanced significantly at his adjutant Gerard, who was standing near, pressed his hand hard and said in an undertone : " We came out to look for wool and we shall go back shorn." The astonished officers looked at one another in silence. This is a convenient spot for a little digression in- tended to explain and justify Commandant Hulot's apprehensions to certain domestic individuals who are accustomed to doubt everything because they see nothing, and who might deny the existence of Marche-a-Terre and the peasants of the West, whose conduct at this period was sublime. The word gars, pronounced ga, is a relic of the Celtic language. It made its way through the Bas Breton into the French, and the word contains more reminders of ancient times than any other word in our present language. The gais was the principal weapon of the Gaels or Gauls ; gaisde meant armed ; gais, courage ; gas, strength. These instances prove the relationship of the word gars to words found in the language of our ancestors. The word is analo- 24 THE CHOUANS gous to the Latin word vir, man, the root of virtus, strength, courage. This dissertation finds its ex- cuse in its nationality ; and then too, perhaps it will serve to rehabilitate, in the minds of some persons, the words gars, garron, garr.omiette , garce, garcette, generally proscribed in polite circles as inelegant, whose origin, however, is most warlike ; they will appear here and there in the course of this narrative. "He's 3i fine garce!" is a little known eulogistic expression which Madame de Stael picked up in a small town of Vendomois where she passed some days of exile. Bretagne is the one spot in all France where Gaelic customs have left the strongest impress. The portions of that province where, even to our days, the wild life and superstitious minds of our uncultured ancestors have remained flagrant, so to speak, are called the country of the Gars. When a district is inhabited by a number of uncivilized crea- tures like those we have introduced in this scene, the country people speak of " the gars of such a parish "; and that classic appellation is a sort of reward for the fidelity with which they strive to preserve the traditions of the Gaelic language and customs : thus their lives retain deep traces of the superstitious beliefs and practices of ancient times. There the feudal customs are still respected. There the anti- quarian finds druidical monuments still standing, and the genius of modern civilization stands aghast at the thought of penetrating immense primeval forests. Incredible ferocity, brutal obstinacy, but unswerving THE CHOUANS 25 fidelity to one's oath ; utter ignorance of our laws, our manners, our costume, our new coins, our lan- guage, but patriarchal simplicity and heroic virtues unite to make the inhabitants of these country dis- tricts poorer in intellectual combinations than the Mohicans and Redskins of North America, but withal as grand, as crafty and as unforgiving. The place Bretagne occupies in the centre of Europe makes it a much more interesting object of study than Canada. Surrounded by lights, whose beneficent warmth does not reach it, the province resembles a frozen coal that remains cold and dark in the midst of a glowing fire. The efforts made by some great minds to win over that fair section of France, so rich in unknown treasures, to social life and to prosperity ; everything, even the attempts of the government, die in the bosom of an immovable race wedded to the practices of immemorial routine. This deplorable state of affairs may be explained to some extent by the nature of the country, furrowed by ravines, torrents, swamps and lakes, bristling with hedges — a sort of earthwork which makes of every field a citadel — and without roads or canals ; to some extent, too, by the natural tendencies of an ignorant population, enslaved by prejudices whose perils will be made evident by the details of this narrative, and unwilling to have aught to do with modern agricultural methods. The picturesque natural disposition of the country and the supersti- tion of the people exclude all possibility of the asso- ciation of individuals and the advantages to be 26 THE CHOUANS derived from the comparison and exchange of ideas. There are no villages. The precarious structures that they call houses are scattered over the country. Each family lives in its own house as in a desert. The only known gatherings are the ephemeral ones at the parish church on Sundays and holy days. Those silent gatherings, dominated by the rector, the only master of those coarse minds, last only a few hours. After listening to the terrible voice of the priest, the peasant returns for another week to his unhealthy abode ; he goes forth to work, he re- turns there to sleep. If he has a visitor, it is the priest — ^the soul of the whole countryside. Thus, it was in obedience to the voice of the priest that thousands of men hurled themselves upon the Re- public, and that those portions of Bretagne, five years before the time at which this story begins, supplied great numbers of soldiers to the first chouannerie. The brothers Cottereau, bold smug- glers who gave their name to that war, carried on their perilous trade from Laval to Foug^res. But there was nothing noble in the insurrections of those districts, and it can be said with assurance that, whereas La Vendee turned brigandage into war, Bretagne turned war into brigandage. The banish- ment of the princes, the overthrow of the religion, were to the Chouans nothing more than pretexts for pillage, and the events of that internecine struggle contracted something of the rough savagery of the local customs. When true defenders of the mon- archy came to recruit soldiers among that ignorant THE CHOUANS 27 and warlike people, they tried, but in vain, to im- part under the white flag, some semblance of gran- deur to the enterprises that had made the Chouan method of warfare odious, and the Chouans remained as a memorable example of the danger of exciting the half-civilized masses of a province. The picture of the first valley presented by Bre- tagne to the traveller's eyes, the description of the men who composed the detachment of recruits, the portrait of the gars who appeared on the crest of La Pelerine give a brief but faithful representation of the country and its people. A trained imagination can, from these details, — picture to itself the stage and the instruments of the conflict ; its elements were there. The flowering hedges in those lovely valleys concealed invisible assailants. Every field was a fortress, every tree masked a pitfall, every old hollow willow trunk guarded a ruse. The field of battle was everywhere. Guns lay in wait at every corner for the Blues whom smiling young girls enticed within range of the firearms, with no thought that their conduct was treacherous ; they went on pilgrimages with their fathers and brothers to learn new wiles and to receive absolution from wayside Virgins made of rotten wood. Religion, or rather the fetich-worship of those ignorant creatures, left them without remorse for murder done. So it was that, when the struggle was once begun, every- thing in the province became a source of danger, noise as well as silence, joy as well as fear, the domestic fireside as well as the highroad. There 28 THE CHOUANS was deep conviction in these acts of treachery. They were savages serving God and the king in the way that the Mohicans make war. But, to render the description of that conflict accurate and true at every point, the historian must add that the instant that the treaty negotiated by Hoche was signed, the whole region was friendly and laughing once more. Families, whose members were tearing one another to pieces the day before, supped safely under the same roof on the morrow. The instant that Hulot detected the secret treach- ery betrayed by the condition of Marche-a-Terre's goatstcin garments, he knew that the end had come of the blessed peace due to the genius of Hoche, the continuance of which seemed to him impossible. So war was to break forth again, more horrible doubt- less than before, after a period of inaction lasting three years. The Revolution had grown milder since the 9th Thermidor, but perhaps it was about to resume the terrifying characteristics that had made it odious to all just minds. English gold had, as always, fomented the discords of France. The Republic, abandoned by young Bonaparte, who seemed to be its tutelary genius, was apparently in no condition to resist so many foes, and the most cruel of all was the last to appear. Civil war, por- tended by innumerable partial uprisings, assumed an entirely new and grave phase when the Chouans conceived the plan of attacking such a strong escort. Such were the reflections that passed through Hulot's mind, although much less succinctly, as soon as he thought that he detected, in the appearance of (29) 30 THE CHOUANS Marche-a-Terre, an indication of a skilfully prepared ambuscade, for, at first, he alone realized his danger. The silence that followed the commandant's pro- phetic remark to Gerard, with which the preceding scene closed, gave Hulot time to recover his self- possession. The old soldier had almost staggered. He could not drive away the clouds that darkened his forehead when he thought that he was already surrounded by the horrors of a war, whose atrocities would perhaps put cannibal tribes to shame. Cap- tain Merle and Adjutant Gerard, his two friends, sought an explanation for the dread — a novel sight to them — depicted on their chief's face, and looked from him to Marche-a-Terre, who sat munching his cake by the roadside, without succeeding in estab- lishing the slightest connection between that species of animal and their intrepid leader's anxiety. But Hulot's face soon grew brighter. While deploring the misfortunes of the Republic, he rejoiced that he had to fight for her, he gladly made an inward vow that he would not be fooled by the Chouans, and that he would fathom the secret of the mysterious and crafty man they did him the honor to employ against him. Before forming any decision, he set about examining the locality in which his enemies proposed to surprise him. When he saw that the road they were then following passed through a sort of gorge, not very deep, in truth, but flanked by dense woods from which several paths led into the road, he drew his great black eyebrows together and THE CHOUANS 3 1 said to his two friends in a low voice trembling with excitement : " We've fallen into a fine hornet's nest ! " "What is it you're afraid of, pray?" asked Gerard. " Afraid ? " echoed the commandant ; " yes, afraid. I have always been afraid of being shot like a dog on the edge of a wood, without even the warning of a qui vive ? " " Bah ! " said Merle with a laugh. " Qui vive ? is a great mistake." "Are we really in danger?" asked Gerard, as surprised by Hulot's sang-froid as he had been by his momentary panic. "Hush!" said the commandant, "we're in the wolf's jaws, it's as dark there as it is in an oven and we must strike a light. Luckily," he added, "we hold the crest of this hill ! " He embellished his remark with an energetic epithet and continued : " Perhaps I shall see my way finally." The commandant, leading the two officers to the side of the road, surrounded Marche-a-Terre ; the gars pretended to think that he was in their way and promptly rose to his feet. "Stay there, vagabond!" cried Hulot, pushing him back on the bank where he had been sitting. From that moment the commandant did not cease to watch the heedless Breton closely. "My friends," he went on, addressing the two officers in an undertone, "it is time to tell you that 32 THE CHOUANS the shop has been broken into over yonder. The Directory, as the result of a row in the Assemblies, has used its broom on our affairs once more. Those pentarchs, or rather pantins ' — it is better in French — of directors have lost a trusty blade. Bernadotte will have nothing more to do with them." " Who takes his place ? " asked Gerard eagerly. " Milet-Mureau, an old graybeard. They select a very bad time to let tongues govern ! English broadsides are pouring in on us from all directions. All these cockchafers of Vendeans and Chouans are in the air, and they who are working the pup- pets knew enough to seize the moment when we are going to the wall." " How so ? " said Merle. " Our armies are beaten everywhere," rejoined Hulot, lowering his voice more and more. "The Chouans have already intercepted the couriers twice, and I received my despatches and the last decrees only because they were sent me by special messenger by Bernadotte just as he was leaving the ministry. Luckily some of my friends have written me confidentially about the commotion. Fouche has discovered that the tyrant Louis XVIIL has been advised by traitors in Paris to send a leader to his ducks in the interior. They think that Barras is false to the Republic. In short, Pitt and the princes have sent hither an ex-noble, an energetic, talented * Tentarch, member of a pentarchy or government of five ; the Directory was composed of five members ; pantin, some- what similar in pronunciation, means jumping-jack. THE CHOUANS 33 fellow, whose object it is to knock the cap off the Republic's head by uniting the efforts of the Ven- deans with those of the Chouans. My gentleman has landed in Morbihan, 1 was the first to find it out and 1 sent word to the rascals in Paris ; the Gars is the name he has taken. All such beasts as that," he said, pointing to Marche-a-Terre, " burden them- selves with names that would give a true patriot the colic if he had to bear them. Now our man is in this region. That Chouan's arrival — " and he pointed again to Marche-a-Terre — "tells me that he's on our backs. But you can't teach an old monkey to make faces, and you must help me to whistle my linnets back into the cage, and in a hurry too ! I should be a pretty duffer, if I allowed myself to be snared like a rook by this ci-devant, who comes from London on the pretext of having to dust our hats ! " Upon learning these secret and critical circum- stances, the two officers, knowing that their leader never took alarm without cause, assumed the grave expression that a soldier's face wears when danger is most pressing, if he be of stern temper and ac- customed to go to the bottom of affairs. Gerard, whose rank, since suppressed, brought him near his leader, attempted to make some reply and to ask for all the political news, some of which was evidently withheld, but a gesture from Hulot imposed silence upon him ; and all three renewed their observation of Marche-a-Terre. The Chouan did not give the least indication of emotion at finding himself under 3 34 THE CHOUANS the watchful eyes of men as formidable by reason of their intelligence as by reason of their bodily strength. The curiosity of the two officers, to whom this sort of warfare was a novelty, was roused to a high pitch by the beginning of an affair that pre- sented an almost romantic interest, and they at- tempted to joke about it ; but at the first word that escaped their lips, Hulot looked at them gravely and said : " God in heaven ! we mustn't smoke over the powder barrel, citizens. To be brave out of season is like the amusement of carrying water in a basket. Gerard," he said in the adjutant's ear, "draw near to yonder brigand gradually and be ready to run your sword through his body at the slightest suspicious movement on his part. For my own part, 1 propose to take measures to carry on the conversation, if our unknown enemies choose to begin it." Gerard bent his head slightly in token of obedi- ence, then began to contemplate the different as- pects of the valley, with which we are sufficiently familiar ; he seemed to wish to examine them more closely and stepped backward, as if unconsciously ; but it is certain that the landscape was the last thing of which he took notice. For his part, Marche-a-Terre made no sign to indicate that the officer's manoeuvre involved him in any danger ; from the way he played with the end of his whip, you would have said he was fishing with pole and line in the ditch. THE CHOUANS 35 While Gerard was trying thus to take up a posi- tion in front of the Chouan, the commandant said in an undertone to Merle : " Give a sergeant ten picked men, and go yourself and station them above us, at the point on the top of the hill where the road widens, forming a plateau, and from which you can see a good strip of the Ernee road. Select a place where the road isn't bordered with woods and from which the sergeant can keep an eye on the fields. Call Clef-des-Coeurs, he's a bright fellow. — There's nothing to laugh at, I wouldn't give two sous for our skins if we don't take our own time." While Captain Merle was carrying out this order with a promptness of which he understood the im- portance, the commander waved his right hand to enjoin silence on the soldiers who surrounded him and who were talking and laughing. With another gesture, he ordered them to resume their weapons. When silence was established he looked from one side of the road to the other, listening with anxious intentness, as if he hoped to hear some stifled sound, the clash of arms or footsteps precursory of the expected struggle. His piercing black eyes seemed to probe the forest to an extraordinary distance ; but, finding nothing there, he consulted the sand of the road, after the manner of savages, trying to discover some traces of the invisible foes of whose audacity he was well aware. Abandoning the hope of discovering anything to justify his fears, he went to the side of the road, climbed the low 36 THE CHOUANS slopes with difficulty and walked slowly along the top. Suddenly he realized how necessary his ex- perience was to the welfare of his command, and he went down again. His face became darker than ever ; for, in those days, the leaders always re- gretted that they could not reserve the most peril- ous tasks for themselves alone. The other officers and the common soldiers, having noticed the preoc- cupation of a chief whose character they admired and whose worth was well known to them, con- cluded that his extreme solicitude denoted impending danger ; but being incapable of suspecting its gravity, they stood like statues and almost held their breath instinctively. Like those dogs who try to divine the purpose of a skilful sportsman whose orders are incomprehensible to them, but who obey none the less promptly, the soldiers looked alter- nately at the valley of Couesnon, the woods along the road and the stern face of their commandant, trying to read their fate therein. They consulted one another with their eyes, and more than once a smile passed from mouth to mouth. When Hulot made his grimace, Beau-Pied, a young sergeant who was considered the wit of the company, said in an undertone : " In the devil's name, what sort of a mess are we in, that that old trooper of a Hulot should have such a sour face ? He looks as if he were before a court-martial ! " Hulot having glanced sternly at Beau-Pied, the silence required of troops under arms reigned :^S THE CHOUANS 37 supreme. Amid that solemn silence could be heard the lagging steps of the conscripts, whose feet rose and fell upon the gravel with a dull, regular, crunch- ing sound, that added an uncertain element of emo- tion to the general anxiety. This indefinable feel- ing will be understood only by those who, when suffering from the agony of suspense, have felt the wild beating of their hearts, in the silence of the night, increased tenfold by some noise whose monot- onous repetition seemed to pour terror into their hearts drop by drop. Resuming his position in the middle of the road, the commandant began to ask himself the question : " Have I made a mistake ? " He gazed with concentrated wrath that shot in lightning flashes from his eyes, at the tranquil and stupid Marche-a-Terre ; but the savage irony which he could detect in the Chouan's listless glance, per- suaded him to continue his precautionary measures. At that moment Captain Merle, having executed Hulot's orders, returned to his side. The silent actors in this scene, the type of innumerable others which made this the most dramatic of all wars, im- patiently awaited fresh developments, anxious to have the obscure points of their military situation cleared up by other manoeuvres. "We did well, captain," said the commandant, "to station the small number of patriots included among the recruits at the rear of the detachment. Take a dozen more good fellows, with sub-lieutenant Lebrun at their head, and lead them quickly to the rear ; they will support the patriots who are already 189931 38 THE CHOUANS there, and will push the whole of yonder flock of birds forward, — at a good pace, too, — so as to bring them up, at double quick, to the high ground occu- pied by our men. I await you." The captain disappeared in the midst of the troop. The commandant glanced at four men, one after an- other, whose intrepidity, address and activity were known to him ; he called them silently, by pointing his finger at them, one by one, and making the friendly sign which consists in bringing the fore- finger toward the nose with a quick movement several times repeated ; they obeyed his sum- mons. "You served with me under Hoche," he said to them, " when we brought those brigands who called themselves the Khig's Chasseurs to their senses ; you know how they hid to decoy the Blues ! " At this implied eulogy of their shrewdness, the four soldiers nodded their heads with a significant wink. Their faces were of that heroic martial cast, whose expression of careless resignation showed that, since the beginning of the conflict between France and Europe, their ideas had not gone behind their cartridge cases, or ahead of their bayonets. With their lips pressed together like a purse when the cords are drawn tight, they looked at their leader with an attentive and interested air. " Very good," continued Hulot, who possessed in an eminent degree the art of speaking the pictur- esque language of the soldiers, "such sharp rabbits as we are mustn't let Chouans fool us, and there THE CHOUANS 39 are Chouans here or my name's not Hulot. I want you four to beat up the woods on the sides of the road. Those fellows behind are going to spin out the march. So, follow close, try not to be caught off guard, and show me what there is in those woods, quick ! " Then he pointed out to them the dangerous ridges overlooking the road. All, by way of thanking him, carried the back of the hand to their old three- cornered hats, whose high brims, battered by the rain and made limp by long use, were falling over on the crown. One of them, named Larose, a cor- poral well known to Hulot, tapped his gun-barrel and said : "We'll whistle a little tune on the clarinet for them, commandant." They started off, two on the right, two on the left. Not without some secret emotion did their companions watch them disappear on the sides of the road. Their anxiety was shared by the com- mandant, who believed that he had sent them to certain death. He shuddered involuntarily when he could no longer see the tops of their hats. Officers and men listened to the gradually lessening noise of their footsteps on the dry leaves with a feeling that was all the keener from being carefully con- cealed. In war time, scenes constantly occur where the endangering of four men's lives causes more dis- may than the thousands of dead left on the field of Jemmapes. Soldiers' faces wear such a multiplicity of expressions, and all so fleeting, that those who paint 40 THE CHOUANS them are obliged to appeal to the memories of those who have been soldiers, and leave pacific minds to study the dramatic features, for such tempests of emotion, abounding In details, cannot be fully de- scribed except at interminable length. Just as the bayonets of the four soldiers ceased to gleam through the bushes, Captain Merle returned, having carried out the commandant's order with lightning-like rapidity. Thereupon Hulot, with two or three orders in quick succession, drew up the rest of his troop in battle array in the middle of the road ; then he ordered a forward movement to the summit of La Pelerine, where his little vanguard was sta- tioned ; but he himself marched last, walking back- ward, in order to observe the slightest change that might take place at any point in the landscape, which nature had made so charming and which man made so terrible. He reached the spot where Gerard was watching Marche-a-Terre, just as the latter, who had followed with an apparently indif- ferent eye all the commandant's manoeuvres, but was then watching with incredible keenness the two soldiers in the woods on the right side of the road, whistled three or four times in such a way as to produce the clear, piercing note of the screech-owl. The three celebrated smugglers whose names have already been mentioned made use of certain varia- tions of that cry at night, to warn one another of ambuscades, of impending danger and of anything that was of interest to them. Thence their sobri- quet of chuin, which means screech-owl or gray-owl THE CHOUANS 41 in the patois of the province. That corrupted word was used to designate the men who, in the first war, imitated the tactics and the signals of the three brothers. When he heard that suspicious whistling, the commandant halted and gazed fixedly at Marche- a-Terre. He pretended to be deceived by the Chouan's idiotic manner, in order to keep him at hand like a barometer to indicate the movements of the enemy. Therefore he stayed Gerard's hand as he was preparing to dispatch the Chouan. Then he stationed two soldiers a few steps away from the spy, and in a loud, distinct voice, ordered them to stand ready to shoot him at the least sign that should escape him. Despite his imminent danger, Marche-a-Terre seemed to feel no emotion, and the commandant, who was studying him closely, noticed his insensibility. "The greenhorn doesn't know much!" he said to Gerard. "Ha! ha! it isn't easy to read a Chouan's face ; but this fellow betrayed himself by his anxiety to show his courage. Look you, Gerard, if he had feigned terror I should have taken him for a fool. He and I would have been a pair. I was at the end of my string. Oh I we shall be attacked ! But let them come ! I am ready now." Having uttered these words in a low tone and with a triumphant air, the old soldier rubbed his hands and glanced at Marche-a-Terre with a cunning expression ; then he folded his arms across his breast, stood in the middle of the road between his two favorite officers and awaited the result of his 42 THE CHOUANS dispositions. Sure of the battle, he looked calmly at his soldiers. " Oh ! there's going to be a shindy, the comman- dant just rubbed his hands," said Beau-Pied in a low tone. The critical situation of Commandant Hulot and his detachment was one of those where it is so certain that lives are at stake, that men of spirit make it a point of honor to exhibit great calmness and self-posses- sion. At such times men judge themselves as a court of last resort. Thus the commandant, being better aware of the danger than his two officers, staked his pride upon appearing to be the most tranquil of the party. Resting his eyes upon Marche-a-Terre, upon the road and upon the woods, one after another, he awaited, not without agonizing suspense, the report of the general discharge of the Chouans, whom he believed to be hiding, like hobgoblins, all about him ; but his face remained impassive. When the eyes of all the soldiers were fastened upon his, he wrin- kled slightly his dark, pockmarked cheeks, drew back his upper lip and winked, a grimace always taken for a smile by his soldiers ; then he brought his hand down upon Gerard's shoulder, saying : "Now, we have quieted down again ; what were you going to say to me just now ? " " What new crisis is approaching, comman- dant ? " " It's nothing very new," he replied in an under- tone. " All Europe is against us and this time they have a fine chance. While the Directors are fight- THE CHOUANS 43 ing among themselves like horses without hay in a stable, and everything is falling to pieces in their government, they leave the armies without rein- forcements. We are crushed in Italy ! Yes, my friends, we have evacuated Mantua as a result of the disaster of Trebia, and Joubert has lost the battle of Novi. I trust that Massena will hold the moun- tain passes of Switzerland, which are threatened by Suvaroff. Our cause is hopeless on the Rhine. The Directory has sent Moreau there. Can that fellow defend a frontier ? — I wish he could, but the coalition will end by trampling on us, and, as ill-luck would have it, the only general who could save us has gone to the devil down yonder, in Egypt ! How could he come back, moreover ? England is mis- tress of the sea." " Bonaparte's absence doesn't disturb me, com- mandant," replied the young adjutant Gerard, in whom careful education had developed a superior mind. " Will our Revolution come to a standstill ? Ah ! it is our duty to do something more than defend the French territory, we have a double mission. Should we not also preserve the soul of the country, the noble principles of liberty and independence, the light of human reason, kindled by our Assemblies, which I hope will spread gradually over the world ? France is like a traveller entrusted with a light, which she carries in one hand while she defends her- self with the other ; if your news is true, never within ten years have we been surrounded by more people who are trying to blow it out. Doctrines 44 THE CHOUANS and country, everything is at the point of extinc- tion." "Alas, yes!" said Commandant Hulot with a sigh. " Those clowns of Directors have succeeded in getting into hot water with every man who could steer the ship skilfully. Bernadotte, Carnot, every- body, even to citizen Talleyrand, has left us. In short, there is only a single good patriot left, friend Fouche, who has everything in his hands through the police ; there's a man for you ! It was he who gave me timely warning of this insurrection. How- ever, we're caught in some sort of trap here, I'm sure of it." " Oh ! if the army doesn't take a hand in our gov- ernment," said Gerard, "the lawyers will put us in a worse fix than we were in before the Revolution. As if those poor fools knew how to command ! " "I'm always afraid," rejoined Hulot, " that I shall hear they are negotiating with the Bourbons. Great God ! if they should reach an understanding with them, what a pickle we fellows here should be in!" " No, no, commandant, we shan't come to that," said Gerard. "The army, as you say, will raise its voice, and provided that it doesn't take its words from Pichegru's vocabulary, I trust that we shall not be hacked to pieces for ten years, just to grow cotton and see others spin it." "Yes, indeed," cried the commandant, "it has cost us terribly dear to change our costume." " Very good," said Captain Merle, " let us con- THE CHOUANS 45 tinue to act the part of good patriots here, and try to prevent our Chouans from having any communi- cation with La Vendee ; for if they do come together and England takes a hand in it, why, this time I wouldn't answer for the cap of the Republic, One and Indivisible." At that point the conversation was interrupted by the cry of the screech-owl apparently some distance away. The commandant, more disturbed than ever, looked once more at Marche-a-Terre, whose impas- sive face gave, so to speak, no sign of life. The conscripts, urged forward by an officer, were huddled together like a herd of cattle in the middle of the road, some thirty paces from the company drawn up in order of battle. About ten paces behind them were the soldiers and the patriots commanded by Lieutenant Lebrun. The commandant cast his eyes over his order of battle and gave one last glance at the picket stationed in advance of his position. Satisfied with the disposition of his forces, he was on the point of turning to give the order to march, when he spied the tricolored cockades of two sol- diers returning, after searching the woods on the left side of the road. As he saw nothing of the two scouts on the other side, the commandant deter- mined to await their return. " Perhaps that's where the bomb will burst," he said to his two officers, pointing to the woods in which his two lost children had buried themselves. While the two skirmishers were making some- thing in the nature of a report to him, Hulot took 46 THE CHOUANS his eyes from Marche-a-Terre. The Chouan there- upon began to whistle vigorously in such a way as to make the sound carry a tremendous distance ; then, before any of those who were watching him could take aim at him, he struck them a blow with his whip that threw them down on the bank. In- stantly the republicans were surprised by an out- burst of wild shrieks or rather howls. A terrible discharge of musketry from the wood on the crest of the bank where the Chouan had been sitting, struck down seven or eight soldiers. Marche-a-Terre, at whom five or six men fired without hitting him, dis- appeared in the woods after clambering up the slope with the rapidity of a wild cat ; his wooden shoes rolled into the ditch, and every one could see upon his feet the heavy hobnailed shoes usually worn by the King's Chasseurs. At the first yell uttered by the Chouans, all the conscripts leaped into the woods at the right, like a flock of birds flying away at the approach of a traveller. " Fire on those hounds ! " cried the commandant. The company fired on them, but the conscripts had succeeded in getting out of reach of the fusillade by jumping behind trees, and before the guns could be reloaded, they had disappeared. " Pass decrees for the organization of depart- mental legions, eh ? " said Hulot to Gerard. " One must be a donkey like a director to think of relying on a conscription in this province. The Assemblies would do better not to vote us so much money and clothes and supplies, but give us a little." THE CHOUANS 47 ** The rascals like their cakes better than hard tack," said Beau-Pied, the wag of the company. At his words the deserters were assailed with hooting and loud laughter from the little troop of republicans, but suddenly they became silent once more. They saw the two men the commandant had sent to beat up the woods on the right creeping painfully down the embankment. The less severely wounded of the two supported his comrade, whose blood drenched the ground. The poor fellows were about half-way down when Marche-a-Terre showed his hideous face ; he took such true aim at the two Blues that he finished them at a single shot and they rolled heavily into the ditch. No sooner did his great head appear than thirty muskets were raised ; but, like a phantom figure, he disappeared behind the fatal tufts of broom. These events, which so many words are required to describe, took place in a moment ; in another moment the patriots and the soldiers of the rear guard joined the rest of the escort. " Forward ! " cried Hulot. The company pushed rapidly forward to the higher, open ground where the picket had been stationed. There the commandant drew up the company in battle order ; but he saw no indications of a hostile demonstration on the part of the Chou- ans and concluded that the only purpose of the am- buscade was to set free the conscripts. " Their yells," he said to his two friends, " in- dicate to my mind that they are not in force. Let 48 THE CHOUANS US go forward at the double-quick and we may reach Ernee without having them on our backs." His words were overheard by a patriot conscript, who left the ranks and walked to where Hulot stood. "General," he said, "I've fought against the Chouans before. May I have two words with you .•' " " He's a lawyer, they always believe themselves in court," the commandant whispered to Merle. — "Go on with your argument," he said to the young Fougerais. "Commandant, the Chouans have brought arms for the m.en they've just taken as recruits, there's no doubt of that. Now, if we show 'em our heels, they'll wait for us at every turn in the road and kill us to a man before we get to Ernee. We must argue, as you say, but with cartridges. During the skirmish, which will last longer than you think, one of my comrades will go and bring up the National Guard and free companies from Foug^res. Although we're only conscripts, you'll see then if we belong to the race of crows." " Then you think the Chouans are numerous ? '* " Judge for yourself, citizen commandant ! " He led Hulot to a part of the plateau from which the sand had been removed as if with a rake ; then, after calling his attention to that fact, he led him some distance into a path where they saw marks of the passage of a large number of men. The leaves were trodden into the ground. " Those are the Gars from Vitre," said the Fou- ON LA PELERINE Tlic Clunian thereupon began to ivhistle vigorously in such a way as to make the sound carry a tremen- dous distance ; then, before any of those zvho were zvatching him could take aim at him, he struck them a blozv ivith his zi'hip that threzv them dozun on the ba)ik. '4o/,'>.<